how to respond to I suck at it

Whenever we are learning a new skill most people are probably not the best or clearly suck at it. There is going to be a learning curve for any new project that you take on and you could call this the sucky phase.

When you learned to walk you probably fell down a couple of times, hurt your knee but you just got up and kept trying. When you’re a kid you think other people can walk, I can too! You didn’t withdraw into yourself and think that you are the world’s biggest loser because walking didn’t come to you straight away.

When you practice any skill you naturally get better and better at something. People who pick things up quickly usually enjoy what they are doing, get feedback or a coach to improve their performance

Once you have done something for a while, you look back at your earlier work and can be shocked at how far you have come. What you thought was once your best art work you may now consider cringey.

Sometimes people just need a little encouragement to push through the hard part when they think they suck at something. The only time someone is a loser is when the quit before the challenge has even begun.

Here are a few kind things you can say to encourage the newbie to keep going.